Crash outside east Charlotte Walmart raises safety concerns

Firefighters in east Charlotte rescued a person trapped in a vehicle after a crash Tuesday morning.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police tell WBTV a woman was pulling out of the Walmart parking lot and pulled out in front of a second vehicle that was traveling on outbound Independence Boulevard.

Officers say the second driver attempted to swerve and avoid a crash, but the two vehicles wrecked. The impact caused the first vehicle to hit the median and flip.

CMPD says both drivers were taken to Presbyterian Hospital, but are expected to be OK. There were two children in one of the vehicles, but neither was taken to the hospital.

Outbound Independence Boulevard at Pierson Drive was shut down completely for a short time while 17 firefighters worked to rescue the person who was trapped.

The scene was clear and traffic moving freely again by noon.

Questions about the safety of this intersection were first raised when the store was built. Tuesday's crash brought up those questions again.

We watched from a parking lot near the Wal-Mart on Tuesday afternoon as car after car pulled out into interstate-speed traffic and slowly attempted to cross four lanes of high speed traffic to make it to the Albemarle Road exit on the left side of out-bound Independence.

North Carolina Department of Transportation spokesperson Jen Thompson says they're aware of the perceived problem and say it is in fact dangerous for people to try and make the jump.

"If we notice a pattern we'll probably look at, do we need to adjust the speed limit, do we need to maybe remove those entrances?"

Thompson says no plans are currently underway to re-arrange traffic patterns in the area. As of Tuesday afternoon, statistics weren't available on crashes in that area.

While answering media questions Saturday in Los Angeles before Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, the Golden State Warrior star hinted that he’s involved in some kind of deal. He was much quieter on the topic than he’s been in the past.

While answering media questions Saturday in Los Angeles before Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, the Golden State Warrior star hinted that he’s involved in some kind of deal. He was much quieter on the topic than he’s been in the past.